The weather couldn’t have been better on Wednesday morning (May 10) for Penn Biology teacher John Gensic (2016 Teacher of the Year) and his nearly 100 Early College Biology students.

Gensic and his students departed on buses headed for Horizon, Elsie Rogers and Mary Frank Schools to plant dwarf fruit trees with the help of an estimated 324 elementary students. Today was the final step of the Phase 1 planting phase which began in the spring of 2016 at Horizon Elementary.

The “Giving Trees” project was the brainchild of Gensic, P-H-M’s 2016 Teacher of the Year and top 10 finalist for Indiana TOY. The project was made possible by a 2016 grant from the P-H-M Education Foundation . Funding this year was a combination of grant money, Gensic’s P-H-M TOY grant money from the Education Foundation, and a donation made by Springhope Farm.

The idea behind the project is for students to participate in a real world event that not only focuses on improving the local environment, but also provides food for the Penn-Harris-Madison school community. It is Gensic’s hope that all the students involved in the project, elementary and high school, will be inspired to become agents of change leading the charge for a healthy environment and community.

The “Giving Trees” project is a four-phase plan with Phase 1 completed on the final planting day on May 15 at Elm Road Elementary. Phases 2, 3 and 4 will be the harvesting of the fruit for use in P-H-M’s schools; and if all goes well, Gensic also hopes to provide fruit for the local community.

When all the planting is done, there will be a total of 64 fruit trees planted between Horizon, Mary Frank, Elsie Rogers and Elm Road. Out of the 64 trees, 40 are apple and 24 are pear trees.

Academically, this project will have the high school students focusing on Indiana Biology Standards 2 (matter cycles and energy transfer) and Biology Standard 3 (interdependence). The elementary students will also focus on Indiana Science and Language Arts Standards as a way to reinforce this great experience.

Please check out the pictures below taken at Elsie Rogers Elementary.

Penn High School Principal Steve Hope and Penn-Harris-Madison Supt. Dr. Jerry Thacker honored Penn High School’s Class of 2017 at Senior Recognition Night on Tuesday, May 9.

The Class of 2017 features 19 Valedictorians – Muqsit Buchh, Balajimonesh Devireddy, Alex Dobbins, Will Gruber, Keegan Hurst, David Kim, Sanjana Kulkarni, Julia Kwak, Mason Lee, Hannah McGinness, Logan McGuire, Baker Nasser, Cole Pollyea, Peter Rutkowski, Hannah Selis, Matthew Shan, Emma Schultz, Evan Shreiner and Kacey Wood – will represent Penn’s Class of 2017 as valedictorians at the graduation ceremony on Friday, May 26 at the University of Notre Dame’s Purcell Pavilion.

The valedictorians boast a GPA range of 4.4904 to 4.3846. In addition, three of the students – Sam Battalio, Annaliza Canda and Michelle Tapp – were named salutatorians.

Penn’s Class of 2017, which includes 886 prospective graduates, has earned nearly $8.5 million in scholarships to date! The  graduating class  also features 12 National Merit Scholarship Finalists, 275 students who are set to earn a High Honors Diploma, 413 students who are in line to earn an Academic Honors Diploma, and 85 students who will earn a Technical Honors Diploma.

Kacey Wood, who will attend Indiana University, was named the Kingsman of the Year, an award determined by the senior students. Wood, one of this year’s valedictorians, attended Discovery Middle School and Northpoint Elementary School.

Nathanael Boone, who will attend Dartmouth University, was named the winner of the Schmucker Award, which is based on a vote by the Penn High School faculty and staff. Boone was a defensive lineman and named Region All-Star Team in January. He attended Schmucker Middle School and Elsie Rogers Elementary School. 

Reagan Johanson, who will attend Indiana University, was awarded the Donna and Dr. Jerry Thacker Scholarship. Johanson attended Schmucker Middle School and Prairie Vista Elementary School.

Baker Nasser, who will attend Indiana University, earned the prestigious Wells Scholarship.

Click here for the complete list of award and scholarship winners for the Class of 2017.

The Penn-Harris-Madison Education Foundation recently announced the recipients of the Spring 2017 grants—with grants totaling $16,640!

Traditional Grant Recipients

Kelso’s Kit: Tools for Kids – Horizon Elementary – Joann Hartline’ Grade K-5  —  300 students; Awarded: $636.73
Kelso’s Kit includes 23 comprehensive lessons that help children make good choices and solve conflicts on their own. The kit will give classroom teachers and/or college practicum students additional tools needed to help students with their everyday life difficulties.

iPod Touches for Walt Disney’s A/V Team

iPod Touches for Walt Disney’s A/V Team – Walt Disney Elementary – Robi Davidson, Emily Beeden; Grades K-4  —  510 students
Awarded: $597
The purchase of the iPods (3) will allow the AV team to record live broadcasts and to connect to other forms of media. In addition, the iPods will allow the team to explore new technologies such as music recording, computer coding, app review, and more extensive photo and video editing.

Wiggling Our Way to Success – Mary Frank Elementary – Lindsay Helman; Grades 3  —  40 students; Awarded: $1,432.34
Alternative seating at Mary Frank will support students who have difficulty focusing. In addition, these seats provide health benefits that include increased metabolism, motivation and engagement, creating better oxygen flow to the brain, and improve core strength.

Strumming Our Way To Musical Success – Horizon Elementary – Jon West and Jeannie Chettleburgh; Grades K-5 — 650 students
Awarded: $1,170
Recently, due to the increase use by pop performers, the Ukulele has quickly risen in popularity. The creates a phenomenon whereby students are expressing a desire to learn to play chords and sing with the Ukulele. The teachers intend to use this natural interest to continue to each the Indiana Music Standards using Ukuleles.

The Walking Classroom – Moran Elementary – Louise Black; Grades 5 — 80-90 students
Awarded: $3,950
Student learning is not limited to sitting in the classroom. This program would allow for a class to walk around/throughout the hallways while listening to pod-casts lessons. Each student audio device is preloaded with 111 pod-casts that are aligned with the 5th grade Common Core curriculum covering language arts, social studies, and health topics.

Documenting Bat Activity in an Urban Habitat – Elm Road School – Jackie Anderson; Grade K-5 —  520 students
Awarded: $323.61
From a school’s FIRST Lego League team, this bat house is located on the edges of the school ground. A remote camera, with infrared lighting, will allow students to observe the natural patterns of bats.

Penn Orchestra – Barrage 8 –  Penn High – Ann Tschetter (P-H-M’s 2017 Teacher of the Year); Grades 9-12 —  20 students
Awarded: $450
Earlier in the year, Penn High School hosted an international string group – Barrage 8 – whose focus is to introduce student to the new eclectic and contemporary side of being a string performer. Furthermore, Penn currently houses contemporary music performing groups in band and choir, but not orchestra. This inspired the teacher to create a before or after-school group where students would take their classical training to a “show” format. Students will learn a wide variety of popular, ethnic jazz, and show tunes. The grant will support purchasing 5 musical instruments for students to perform.

Cafetorium Acoustic Development – Grissom Middle – Heather Baker; Grades 6-8 —  600 students
Awarded: $5,181.39
The school’s cafetorium is used for numerous events throughout the school year, including meetings and conferences. The current sound situation involves outdated technology and bare walls to enable a massive amount of reverb and echo. A new system would increase the quality for musical performances, student news programs, athletic events, and student body assemblies.

Serving Students with Calming Sensory Tools – Elm Road – Audrey Kim; Grades K-5 —  520 students
Awarded: $800
As an educational assistant, the teacher has helped students with anger and behavior issues using sensory tools. Students have enjoyed using manipulative tools to help them calm down. Creating boxes that are readily available for students to help channel their frustrations in appropriate ways.

EZ grant recipients ($250 or less)
 

• Occupational Therapy Materials: Mary Frank Elementary – Tess Weaver; Grade PreK-8; Awarded: $246.67
• Book Clubs in the Classroom – Not Just for Adults; Prairie Vista Elementary – Karen Hlade; Grade 5; Awarded: $244.43
• Electronics Components for Updated Physics Curriculum; Penn High School; Jonathan Lockwood; Grades 11-12; Awarded: $225
• Aquaponics Experiments to Promote a Sustainable Food Future; Penn High School – John Gensic; Grades 9-12; Awarded: $247.99
• It’s All About the Bass Bow; Discovery/P-H-M Middle School Orchestras – April Oppenheim; Grade 6-8; Awarded: $234
• Bike to Build Muscles! Walt Disney Elementary – Kathy Greve; Grades K; Awarded: $250
• Take a Stand; Discovery Middle – Murray Weaver; Grades 6-8; Awarded: $250
• Pay Attention! Elsie Rogers Elementary – Stefanie Hanks; Grade K-5; Awarded: $245
• Table Top Easels; Penn PALS/Elsie Rogers Preschool – Alison Minegar; Grades Preschool; Awarded $250

As a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization established in 1996, the PHMEF develops alternative sources of income to support learning while strengthening the partnership between schools and community.

Since the Foundation’s inception, more than $520,000 have been distributed in innovative teaching grants supporting P-H-M teachers, staff, and students. Click here to see the grants awarded Fall 2016. The Grants Committee is comprised of Foundation board members, community representatives, and a P-H-M administrator who evaluate each grant application.

Dedicated business leaders, administrators, and community volunteers, representing a cross-section of the school community, serve as the board of directors. PHMEF supports education through awarding innovative teaching grants, scholarships to students, staff development and other corporation-wide initiatives.

PHMEF’s funding comes from special events such as its premier Silver Mile Health & Fitness Fair, Donna & Dr. Jerry Thacker 5K Run/Walk for Education, the State of Indiana from the purchase of Read On Education License plates, Corporations for Education, Thank a Teacher, Entrance to Excellence bricks, and individual donations.

The Silver Mile was held this past weekend (Saturday, May 6).  First place overall male race winner was Penn’s Colton Shail, Junior track and cross country runner at Penn High School, with a time of 16:29.9. First place overall female was Erin Moore, 13-year-old Niles student, with a time of 20:07.6.

Meadow's Edge Elementary earned the top participation P-H-M school prize and will receive a $5,000 grant to be used for a fitness/health program.

Coming in at second place was Northpoint Elementary. They will receive a $1,000 grants. The school with the third most student participation was Madison, and they will receive a $500 grant.

Overall there were 500 participants in this year’s race.

This year’s Health and Fitness Fair was a huge success featuring health screenings by Saint Joseph Mishawaka Medical Center.

Healthy post-race snacks were provided by Whole Foods Market. Urban Swirl also helped runners cool off with frozen yogurt cups.

Penn Robotics Team 135 setup robot test drives so that younger children could learn to drive robots. And the Kingsmen Cheerleaders lent their face painting talents to make some prettier faces even prettier! Click here to see a list of  all this year’s sponsors. 

Penn Robotics closed out its 20th year of tournament competitions with a fourth-place finish in its division of 68 teams in the FIRST Robotics World Competition held last week (April 26-29) in St. Louis.

More than 700 teams from 33 countries competed in the FIRST Robotics World Competition.

Penn’s Team 135 had been as high as No. 2 in the qualification matches. The effort for Team 135 ended in the quarterfinal matches. More details on the overall team finishes can be found at https://www.thebluealliance.com/.

One of the highlights of the trip for the team was when three members –  Mia Heisler, Lizzie Heisler and Mackenzie Richards – kicked off the competition by singing the National Anthem before an audience of more than 20,000 at the Opening ceremonies held at the Edward Jones Dome.

The trip to World was a culmination of a great season for Team 135. The 36-student team won the coveted Chairman’s Award in previous back-to-back competitions: State Championship (Huntington, April 7-9) and Perry Meridian (Indianapolis, March 23-25).

Penn Robotics is led by Jim Langfeldt, Evan White, and Josiah Parker — the coordinators of this top-caliber FIRST Robotics team.

“Penn Robotics represented Indiana very well in St. Louis at the Championships last week,” Langfeldt said. “With a record of 9-1 and being seeded 4th in our division, the Penn Robotics team once again led their alliance into the finals before being eliminated in the quarter finals.” 

Team 135 is the only Indiana team to qualify for Championships every year in the district model. 

“This group of students worked tirelessly to iterate and improve on nearly every system on the robot!” Landfeldt said.  “I have never seen more dedication going into championships!

“Our State Champion Chairman's Award team made an overwhelming impact on the judges in the presentation room on Friday,” Langfeldt continued. “The work our entire team  puts into Chairman's (category) is the foundation of our experience!  This team continues to impress me with their willingness to spread FIRST and make a difference in our school and community!  It is more than robots!

Langfeldt said that having three of his students sing the national anthem at the Opening Ceremony was an added bonus.

“It was something I will never forget,” Langfeldt said of the Team 135 Trio singing the national anthem. “The diverse talents on our team this year has been an inspiration to everyone we have come in contact with.  I am very proud of the accomplishments Team 135 has made this season.”

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY ALLISON ADAMS AND CHASE KIDDER.

Penn High School’s Mathcon Team earned a second consecutive national championship, and senior David Kim repeated as an individual national champion at the MathCon National Championships at the University of Illinois Chicago on April 22.

MathCon is a national mathematics competition for students in grades 5-12. First, there is an online qualifying contest lasting 45 minutes. Approximately 50,000 students participated in this online qualifier. A total of 576 students qualified to go to Chicago for compete at the national event, which was the top 1 percent of the online scores. There were 43 states were represented at the nationals in Chicago.

Penn qualified 19 students for the nationals. The national contest consists of 50 questions and lasts 75 minutes. Individual awards are then determined for each grade level and for the best high school and middle school. Out of Penn’s 19 national qualifiers, 17 won an award.

“I would credit our success to our commitment for our academic extracurricular activities at Penn,” Penn Math Instructor and MathCon coach Brad Grounds said. “We offer many opportunities to help these students develop their problem solving skills with Indiana Math League, the American Mathematics Competition, Trig-Star, and Math Academic Super Bowl (weekly meetings practicing higher level problem solving).”

Seniors:

David Kim              National Champion (2nd year in a row)

Dat Luong             Gold Medal

Matthew Shan     Bronze Medal

Mason Lee            Bronze Medal

Muqsit Buchh      Honorable Mention

Baker Nasser       Honorable Mention

No junior qualifiers

Sophomores:

Tina Lu                   Silver Medal

Corey Wang         Honorable Mention

Chelsea Chen      Honorable Mention

Hasaan Kazi         National qualifier

Freshmen:

Seunghoon Sun     Bronze Medal

Lyvia Li                      Honorable Mention

Jeffrey Du                Honorable Mention

David Simonetti    Honorable Mention

Noah Lang              Honorable Mention

Tara Devaraj           Honorable Mention

Abhinov Kotaru    Honorable Mention

Rajeev Datta          Honorable Mention

Yewon Oh               National qualifier

Mrs. Anne Tschetter didn’t think anything of it when Principal Steve Hope and Fine Arts Academy Leader Glenn Northern asked to meet with her about the recent ISSMA competitions, especially since the Orchestra just won a Gold Rating with Distinction at this past weekend’s competitions. But she got the surprise of her life when Principal Hope and Mr. Northern walked her back to her classroom …

Penn-Harris-Madison Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker, Mrs. Tschetter’s husband, Lyndon, several members of P-H-M Administration and her students were waiting to surprise her that she had been named 2017 P-H-M Teacher of the Year!

Mrs. Tschetter is in her 21st year with P-H-M, spending her first 20 years at Discovery Middle School as Orchestra Director there as well. For six of those years, she also taught music at Penn High School, switching to the high school exclusively this school year.

Mr. Northern, who nominated Mrs. Tschetter for the Teacher of the Year award, describes her as a passionate, kind and inclusive teacher who “believes that music needs to be both challenging and fun … to touch learners in personal and exciting ways.” She believes in being firm, fair and be fun!

As a practicing violinist and violist herself, who performs regularly with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra and other local string quartets, Mrs. Tschetter models the techniques she seeks in her students, playing alongside them as she’s teaching. She has taught and trained some of the finest student orchestras in the region and country. 

Since 1998, her ensembles have been recognized consistently for their high level of performance at the local, regional, state and national levels winning Gold Ratings at Indiana State School Music Association (​ISSMA) and multiple “With Distinction” awards, including this year’s competition (April 28 & 29, 2017).

Among her other accomplishments, Mrs. Tschetter was a conductor with the Cincinnati Orchestra, working with the Symphonic Orchestra. In January 2016, she received the Indiana American String Teacher's Association "Middle School Teacher of the Year" Award; and in 2015, received the "Michiana Outstanding Music Educator Award" sponsored by Quinlan & Fabish Music Company.

Mrs. Tschetter will be officially recognized and receive her plaque and a grant from the P-H-M Education Foundation at P-H-M’s Employee Recognition Dinner on May 17th. Also being recognized at that dinner are P-H-M service award employees, retirees and Meadow’s Edge Teacher’s Aide Shari Cerney who was named the Employee of the Year on Thursday, April 27.

All five of Penn’s Fine Arts music groups competing in the ISSMA Group I qualifier competition this past weekend (April 28 & 29, Chesterton, Indiana) earned a Gold Rating with Distinction and one ensemble also qualified for State Finals for the 16th consecutive year!

Penn’s Choir, Women’s Chorale, Orchestra, Symphonic Band and Symphonic Winds all competed for the 16 Concert Choirs, 8 Treble/Men’s Choirs, 8 Orchestras and 16 Band open spots and the chance to compete in the ISSMA State Finals this coming Saturday, May 6.

The Symphonic Winds, under the direction of Glenn Northern, Chris Paulson and Aaron Griesser, received a Gold Rating with Distinction for their performance and also qualified for State Finals. They will perform at Lawrence Central High School in Indianapolis at the State Competition.

Penn’s other groups and ensembles received a Gold Rating with Distinction for their performances:

• Penn Concert Choir, under the direction of Andrew Nemeth, Lavon Oke and accompanist Andrew Napolitan
• Penn Women’s Chorale, under the Direction of Lavon Oke, Andrew Nemeth, and accompanist Andrew Napolitan
• Penn Orchestra, under the direction of Anne Tschetter and Elizabeth Cravens

Congratulations to all of these student and teachers for their outstanding achievements!

Penn High’s Kingsmen, ranked No. 1 in Indiana, open the Class 4-A softball sectional against No. 13 LaPorte on Tuesday, May 22, at 6:30 p.m. at Penn’s May Oberfell Lorber Field.

Coach Beth Zachary’s club, ranked No. 14 in the nation by USA Today, is seeking its fourth consecutive sectional crown.

Action in the Penn Sectional starts on Monday, May 22, when Plymouth plays Adams at 5 p.m., followed by Clay vs. Mishawaka.

Monday’s winners play at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 23, followed by the Penn vs. LaPorte game.

The championship is set for 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 25.

Penn finished state runner-up last season.

Penn High Senior and AP Studio Art Show is scheduled for Friday, May 19, from 6:30-9 p.m.

Join us on campus for a night of visual and performing arts. Enter: Door B Sunshine Hallway.

The event will be in the Kingsman Cafe, art hallway, photo & graphic design rooms and the Kingsman Art Gallery.

There will be extraordinary artwork from our Seniors and AP students along with food and music.

Student artists will be selling copies of their work, and all of PHM is invited.  Ask your friends about the art classes they are making art in and join us for light refreshment and enjoy creative ideas of our AP Studio and Senior here at Penn.

Other Art Shows that have Penn student's art work on view: IUSB Gallery – May 5-27 & 2nd District Congressional Art Awards at South Bend Airport now till May 13.